Author Topic: Animorphs Animal Atlas  (Read 1186 times)

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Offline RYTX

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Animorphs Animal Atlas
« on: March 26, 2011, 03:33:45 PM »
While we all loved the story, characters and alien presence of Animorphs, I'd like to think that most the people who read these books also had some sort of interest in animals. And while I doubt anyone here is out to become the next Jane Goodall or Steve Irwin, I'd hope there is enough of and interest to facilitate a conversation.
So, in that spirit, I present this thread as a place to share opinions, post facts, and ask questions about all the fascinating creatures of planet Earth that were used to help save the galaxy.

And I'd like to go ahead and get things started with a few tidbits of what I know on everyones favorite morph, the almighty, invincible,  completely beloved ****roach.

And based on the pic and description we got, that was probably the American ****roach: Periplaneta americana.
Which, like most the ****roaches in America originates out of the old world topics, coming over on ships a few hundred years ago. And now they are everywhere. Kinda. These roaches are considered peri-domestic, so while on occasion you'll find them in the pantry, you're much more likely to run into outside a building at night. They don't do people serious harm, besides scaring a few things out of you, but they can cause allergies and carry some diseases.

Despite popular lore, they can be killed. It may be tough, but most ways you think of using to kill any bug works on roaches if you do it right. But one of the many reasons they are so hard to kill is, as any Animorph will tell you, they are hard to catch- which apparently is a highly studied event in neuroscience. The back end of a roach as two structures, called ceri, sticking out that are covered in little hairs. These hairs detect the direction of rapid changes in air acceleration, not velocity, allowing them to quickly act to evade a lunging predator, or stomping parent. Obviously it's a bit more complicated than that, but hey, I'm no neuroscientist. But the next time you want to catch a roach, try being swift, but don't accelerate into it too quickly  ;)

Pic
[spoiler] [/spoiler]

Edit: Fixed the pic. Turns out the censor won't let you post anything with the word ****, but roach is fine
 :-]
« Last Edit: March 28, 2011, 02:38:38 PM by RYTX »
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Offline Dogman15

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Re: Animorphs Animal Atlas
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2011, 04:19:53 PM »
The picture isn't working, and talking about ****roaches is going to be hard with this forum's censoring algorithms. :P

Offline Pokey

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Re: Animorphs Animal Atlas
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2011, 08:14:12 PM »
Who says no one here is out to become the next Jane Goodall / Steve Irwin? Crikey....  ;)

The animal I'll cover today, chosen based on a conversation with my housemate last night (so the topic is still fresh in my mind) are
DOLPHINS!

Now, these smiley aquatic mammals are a fairly well-loved animal in human society, but, how much do we really know about them? And how much does the public really know about the secret world of human/dolphin relations?

So long and thanks for all the fish?
Dolphins are undoubtedly one of the most intelligent species to grace this planet. Like many primates, dolphins have been observed to use tools, and pass the knowledge of tool use between generations from parent to child.  (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/12/10/sponge-wielding-dolphins-teach-their-daughters-how-to-use-the-tools/ )
Dolphins also develop and perfect different hunting techniques depending on the environment where their pod lives.
Here are some videos of some pretty spectacular techniques:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atN_25slL64[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hzUZE5bdfI[/youtube]

But, not all of the intelligence of a dolphin is wrapped up in finding food. Like humans, dolphins are an incredibly social animal. Also like humans, dolphins communicate in their own 'language' of clicks and squeaks which differs from the noises made for the purpose of echolocation. Though there has been considerable research conducted investigating dolphin communication, humans still know surprisingly little about their secret world. Often non-scientific observations and stories prove just as powerful as revealing simple tid-bits of the social intelligence of dolphins. To begin with, dolphins give each other 'names'. These unique sounds are directed at a particular dolphin, and unique to getting the attention / referring to that dolphin. As well as simply having names, dolphins are known to 'gossip' about or refer to each other too, as dolphins have been observed to use the names of other dolphins even when that dolphin is not present.

More like us than we would like to admit?
Dolphins are the only other non-primate species observed to mate for reasons other than reproduction. Like humans, dolphins also engage in extensive foreplay, and the actual act of copulation is rather brief.

Intelligence and empathy
Dolphins have long history of associations with humans, and have, many times throughout history, been reported to engage in acts that do not fit any of the criteria for basic survival, dolphins have shown, to humans and other animals, behaviours that can (as unscientific as this is) only be described as acts of empathy. Since humans began navigating the seas, for food, trade and discovery, there have been tales of dolphins saving sailors and fishermen lost at sea, guiding them towards land, saving them when they have become shipwrecked or are drowning, and driving away sharks. Fishermen throughout various parts of the world across history also have built mutually beneficial fishing relationships with dolphins, often where the dolphins drive fish to shore where humans catch them with nets, and return some of their catch to the dolphins. My favourite dolphin story is that of Moko the dolphin, who rescued a whale and her calf trapped in a bay by leading them back out to sea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moko_(dolphin)

Intelligence and the capacity for evil
Along with intelligence comes the capacity for evil. Not just survival, but heinous acts with the apparent intention to harm. Infanticide, murder, rape and gang rape, and the killing of other animals, such as porpoises, for no apparent reason (porpoises are not threats to dolphins nor do they compete with them for food), all of these acts have been observed in dolphins.

Are we loving the dolphin to death?
Due to the popularity of dolphins among humans, many enterprising individuals have established 'dolphinariums' around the world where dolphins are kept in captivity for the purposes of entertaining humans. What many wide eyed visitors admiring these wonderful animals don't realize though, is that behind the dolphin's famous but misleading smile, is another tragic story like so many others, of human exploitation of animals for profit. Most of the dolphins in aquariums are young females, selected for their sex, age and temperment, from entire pods during dolphin drive hunts, where the rest of the dolphins are killed for meat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_drive_hunting Although some of these drive hunts exist purely for hunting dolphin meat, many are primarily still existing because of the high demand, and high profit associated with the capture of dolphins for dolphinariums, as the price attracted for a single, young female dolphin appropriate for captivity will often exceed the price attracted for the carcasses of the rest of her pod. Here I have linked a very good interesting independent documentary about the trade in live dolphins, which I highly recommend watching for those who have some spare time.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-nKvCcePss&feature=related[/youtube]

There are many more interesting facts and stories about dolphins, but, I think this post is sufficiently long now to provide a fairly good introduction. So, that conclude's Pokey's entry to the Animorphs Animal Atlas on dolphins ;)
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Offline Darth Zakryn

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Re: Animorphs Animal Atlas
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2011, 02:30:39 PM »

DOLPHINS FTW!!!!

Yes, I love dolphins. How about that story where they saved a bunch of swimmers in New Zealand from one (possible two) great white shark(s)? I was amazed. Really, these are the creatures we KILL with tuna nets. I was always disappointed that Animorphs portrayed dolphins the way it did. KA kind of downplayed their intelligence.

Offline RYTX

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Re: Animorphs Animal Atlas
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2012, 11:33:14 PM »
Hmm, this didn't take off at all like I'd hoped. Maybe I shouldn't have started with ****roaches...
Still, recent activity on the forum compells me to make one more shot, and pass on a bit about those cousins of roaches
The mighty Termite. (and I hope make a few points about social animals in general)

Because you read animorphs,  you know termites are an evolutionary kin to roaches. Some suggest that they are most closely related to wood eating roaches, and their diet is a key part of their social behavior. (Which is very diffenent than other social insects I might add)
Multi celled animals, including insects, don't digest cellulose-a key part of plant cells-well. Termites have a symbionant in that lives in their gut that breaks down cellulose. It's the same concept in herbivorous mammals.
Termites though aren't born with their symbionants- and once they get them they lose them sometimes: growing termites "shed" their skin, and the part of the gut that holds the symbionants. So to get and replienish these creatures integral to their life, they live in groups and feed off each others...secertions .
These secertions not only contain symbionants, but some types of external hormone that allow communication and some control.

Termite colonies live much longer than their founding king and queen (unlike ants and bees, male termites exisist in the colony and are needed for reproduction throught the queen's breeding cycle.) In addition to workers, that care for young & reproductives and gather food, their are soliders that defend the colony, and a special class of secondary reproductive, that can take over the breeding if the active breeders dies. These seconds are kept under developed by another hormone that kings and queens produce: when the king/queen dies a secondary can develop. "Primary" reproductives are those that leave the colony and mate with termites from other colonies to a new one. Individuals, especially kings and queens can live a long time, but their colonies can live for many generations.
Termites are notorious for living in wood, but also make nest or mounds (pic)in the soil and forage for food.  Some species are even gardners: they grow fungus at the base of the mounds, and can regulate the amount of heat by modifying openings in the nest.
No one has ever really been a termite, which makes it hard to say that these creatures are mindless slaves that act as part of a whole, and just as hard to say they aren't-though evidence lends that they are not.
These insects communicate chemically-and communication in all species does not control action, it only influences it.
This is my favorite example
Termite & Red Papermate Pen
Some pen inks contain a chemical with effects resembling one that termites use to mark trials. Pens hold the chemical in high amounts, so the cues that would indicate direction are probably obscured.
It's worth while to note that the termite follows the figure, changes direction, and can cut across corners, or may completely ignore the trail.
If you ever get a chance (probably in school, still just better not to bring any home) it's mildly interesting, and you can see drastic changes in behavior between individuals, and even in a single one.
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Offline Estelore

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Re: Animorphs Animal Atlas
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2012, 04:27:13 AM »
The peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus, Jake's featured flight morph was our favourite animal for years, and we read about it obsessively from a very young age.

It's known for being the fastest self-powered animal (that is, humans in spacecraft don't count) on Earth, exceeding two hundred miles per hour in a dive. In level flight it is actually significantly slower than other members of the falcon family, averaging about sixty miles per hour- not fast enough to take down pigeons and waterfowl, its preferred prey animals. Without its signature diving attack, the falcon would be stuck with perch-and-drop hunting techniques like those used by the red-tailed hawk to capture mammalian prey, for lack of speed in level flight. A gyrfalcon, in comparison, almost never uses diving hunting techniques, but its level flight averages eighty miles per hour and has been known to break one hundred miles per hour, more than fast enough to overtake avian prey by sheer speed and endurance.

The same feature of the peregrine's wings that enables it to dive (and pull out of dives) but prevents it being lightning quick in level flight also has another set of uses: first, because the base of the wings are broader than those of most falcons, the peregrine can actually soar the way buteos (broad-winged hawks like the red-tail) can soar. Most other falcons have much longer, narrower wings, forcing them to flap but preventing them soaring effectively. Second, the peregrine actually has a much lower stalling speed (the speed when the bird loses altitude because it's not moving fast enough forward to keep lift) than other falcons, allowing it to take slower surveys of the hunting grounds without having to constantly be on the move. Finally, the broader wing-base adds a great deal of maneuverability that narrow-winged birds lack; a peregrine can turn very sharply in level flight, despite lacking extreme speeds outside of diving attacks.

In order to maintain the ability to breathe during steep dives, peregrines have a structure on their nares (nostrils) that is unique to the species: a small cone inside the pit of the nares creates a pair of small vortices in the air, disrupting airflow over the nares sufficiently that the bird can inhale.
The falcon's beak has a 'tooth' that hooks backward behind the main hook. This structure is designed specifically to sever the spinal chord of its prey, so that the prey cannot fight and cause damage to the falcon while the falcon is carrying the prey to its nest.
When a falcon dives on its prey, it actually clubs the prey bird with its balled-up talons- like a tiny two hundred mile per hour sledgehammer. Once the prey is stunned, the falcon flares wings to slow itself, then makes a second pass to catch the falling stunned prey.
Peregrines pluck their prey before eating. Compare to owls, who usually swallow prey whole and then cast up fur along with their pellets. You won't find too many feathery bits in the pellets cast by a falcon.

Since diving-only hunting techniques are pretty rare among raptors, the peregrine manages to maintain a solid niche in the global ecosystem: its diet is restricted to highly populous animals that are too fast for other predators to take under normal circumstances.
Despite a severe population decline due to overuse of DDT, a pesticide that softens birds' eggs if they consume it before laying, peregrines have made a massive comeback, and along with the common barn owl, they are the single most widespread raptor species in the world. Their name 'peregrine' means 'wandering,' and their ability to range widely, adapt to a variety of wild and urban environments, and make exceptionally long migrations on a regular basis definitely earned the name.

A male falcon is called a tercel, which means "third," because male falcons are smaller than females by about one third. Baby falcons are called eyases, singular eyas, and a falcon's nest is called an eyrie. The words 'peregrine' and 'falcon' always refer specifically to the female adult of the species, in falconry; when referring to the species or family of falcons in general, the word 'hawk' is used instead, and is treated as gender-neutral.
Historically, falcons have been trained by humans to hunt on behalf of their keepers. Only a king could legally own a gyrfalcon, which was considered the most masterful of hunters, and only somebody of princely rank or higher could keep a peregrine falcon.
A person who keeps falcons for hunting is a falconer or faulkner. The leather straps on a falcon's legs to function as a short leash are jesses. The place a trained falcon is kept is called a mews. When a bird on the hand loses its balance or is startled and flaps excitedly, it is called bating (pronounced 'batting'), and the portable open-topped platform used to transport several falcons at once is called a cadge; the person who carries it is a cadger. The diving attack is called stooping.

The peregrine has a variety of names in many languages, as can be expected from a bird that covers so much territory.
In rural USA, it's called a duck hawk in many field guides from the early 20th century, but now the official name is in more popular use.
In Scotland, it's a blue hawk, or seobagh ghorm in Scots-Gaelic.
In India, it's shaheen.
In Welsh, it's hebog tramor.
In Danish, it's vandrefalk.
In Dutch, it's slechtvalk.
In Finnish, it's muuttohaukka.

The Egyptian solar deity Horus is represented as having the head of a peregrine falcon.
In Norse mythology, the goddess Freyja wore a cloak made of falcon feathers, and she could use it to fly or disguise herself as a falcon.
In Greek mythology, the sorceress Circe is daughter of the solar titan Helios, and one interpretation of her name is 'falcon.'
The word 'falcon' is derived from Latin 'falx,' meaning a hooked blade or sickle.

Aaaand... that's all that comes to mind. :)
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Offline RYTX

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Re: Animorphs Animal Atlas
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2012, 12:37:48 PM »
...I'm impressed.
But I have to add one thing
I just learned this last year, the stoop is a spiral. Somewher there is a better video of it, and showing how the visual mechicans of staying on target while spinning at 200mph. Trying to find it....
EDIT: Found it! It's about 38.5 minutes in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-3pa53GF8iA#t=2315s

This is a really good documentary on raptors in general, so if you're interested...
and around 5m 45s, it has a falcon smacking a red-tail. Take that Tobias
« Last Edit: January 17, 2012, 01:21:47 PM by RYTX »
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Offline Noelle

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Re: Animorphs Animal Atlas
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2012, 12:56:52 PM »
The rat morph is featured a couple times in the Animorphs series, the first time being Cassie's rat "Courtney" that she was using for a school science project.  However, the rat morph is most likely one of the most notorious in the series because it is the morph that David got trapped in by the other Animorphs.  This morph was most likely Rattus norvegicus, the "brown rat."  Despite it's name, Rattus Norvegicus comes in many colors, including brown, black, hooded (multi-colored), and the most popular, albino.  While Cassie did mention that rats were very intelligent creatures, I think that only scratches the surface of how interesting and misunderstood rats are. 

pet rat!


Rats are feared by many, and are often thought to be pests, or even dangerous.  Wild rats can pose numerous health risks, including the spread of Leptospira, Toxoplasma gondii, and the Bubonic plague (via fleas.)  Despite this, domesticated rats actually make very good pets.  Owning a pet rat, health-wise, is as safe as owning a dog or cat, and is in comparison low cost.

As pets, rats are very docile, interactive, quiet, intelligent, and easily trained.  They are very sociable animals, and it is always best to have two so they have company.  If treated well, rats enjoy human company, and are even known to seek their human owner's attention when roaming free or if they get loose from their cage.  A good, secure cage is needed for a rat, since rats have been known to escape from their cages, go exploring, then return back to their cage after they are done.  It is important to note, however, that these are nocturnal creatures, so there may be noise at night.  The average lifespan of a rat is 2.5-3 years.

Due to their high intelligence, rats are often used as working animals.  They have been known to be used as service animals, often to detect harmful muscle spasms.  They are also very useful as therapy animals, as large animals (such as dogs) can sometimes be viewed as intimidating.  They have even been trained to help detect tuberculosis via scent in samples.

 


Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fancy_rat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_rat

Photo source:http://pattihaskins.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/rat.jpg
« Last Edit: January 17, 2012, 08:01:47 PM by Noelle_Winters »